The Court Taste Of Giuseppe Castiglione’s Paintings

Giuseppe Castiglione was born in Italy Milan, he went into China as a missionary during Kangxi Dynasty, and it was more than 50 years of being an court painter in the Qing Dynasty, he has made the indelible contribution for the exchange between Chinese and Western art. Giuseppe Castiglione was deeply influenced by the Baroque and religious art. However, emperor Kangxi did not completely accept the western oil painting’s taste, Giuseppe Castiglione had to cater to Kangxi emperor’s taste and continuously explore a way which can combine the Western focus perspective and cavalier perspective of Chinese painting, and the use of paper, silk, brush and other materials of Chinese tradition. Giuseppe Castiglione chose the painting subjects which the emperor liked, and gradually formed a new painting style which include Chinese and Western elements. This paper attempts to regard the development of court tastes of the Kang Yong Qian period as the dark line, and the court tastes showed in Giuseppe Castiglione’s paintings as the bright line, focusing on the following three issues:1, How is court taste formed in the three dynasties and what is the characteristics in this period? This problem Through historical document and the Emperor’s records about the works of Giuseppe Castiglione to hammer out the emperor’s taste, as well as analysis of the reason why Giuseppe Castiglione’s taste tends to court taste; 2, How do the paintings of Giuseppe Castiglione show the court taste on the theme, style, technique aspect? To solve this problem should combined specific analysis with the specific works of Giuseppe Castiglione.3,What is the statements of Giuseppe Castiglione’s painting status? Jiaqing later period,the court taste had changed with political and economic declined, Giuseppe Castiglione’s painting status also declined, there are many internal reasons in addition to political changes. While the differences in aesthetic taste, social changes have become the reason why his new style paintings donot last long in history. But we should evaluate Giuseppe Castiglione’s paintings objectively, it is undeniable what Giuseppe Castiglione did for the cultural exchanges between Chinese and Western art, bringing elements of western art to China, at the same time, China taste also had an influence to the rococo in Europe.